The quickest and easiest way
of reaching Barcelona is to
fly direct to El Prat de
Llobregat, the city's airport.
Catalunya's other major
airport, Girona - used mainly
by charter flights and less
than an hour from resorts on
the Costa Brava - is also
handy for Barcelona. Only
ninety minutes from the city
by train, it's an attractive
point of entry into Catalunya
in its own right, and is often
much cheaper to reach than
Barcelona itself. The other
charter airport in the region
is at Reus, west of Tarragona,
again just ninety minutes from
Barcelona by bus or train.
How much you pay to get
there depends on the season,
with the highest fares being
from May to September, when
the weather is best; then
dropping during the
"shoulder" seasons -
March-April and
October-November - with the
best prices during the low
season, December to February
(excluding Christmas and New
Year when prices are hiked up
and seats are at a premium).
Note also that flying on
weekends may add to the
round-trip fare; price ranges
quoted here assume midweek
travel.
You can often cut costs by
going through a specialist
flight agent - either a
consolidator, buys up blocks
of tickets from the airlines
and sells them at a discount,
or a discount agent, who in
addition to dealing with
discounted flights may also
offer special student and
youth fares and a range of
other travel-related services
such as travel insurance, rail
passes, car rentals, tours and
the like. Some agents
specialize in charter flights,
which may be cheaper than
anything available on a
scheduled flight, but again
departure dates are fixed and
withdrawal penalties are high.
Another option if
travelling from Britain is to
go by train, bus or car
, though these inevitably take
much longer than a plane and
often work out no cheaper.
Booking flights online
We offer you the opportunity
to book your tickets online,
which may cut out the costs
of agents and middlemen.
Good deals can also be found
through our partners
discount or auction sites,
as well as through the
airlines' own websites.
Flights from the UK and
Ireland
Flying to Barcelona from the
UK takes about an hour and a
half, around thirty minutes
more from Ireland, and
connections at the other end
into the city are so
frequent that you can easily
be on the Ramblas sipping a
coffee by noon. There are
charter
flights from London
throughout the year, either
direct to Barcelona itself,
or to Girona. The widest
selection of ads for London
departures is invariably
found in the classified
pages of the London listings
magazine
Time Out or
in the
Evening Standard
. For departures from
other
British airports check
the local evening papers and
the
Sunday Times and
Observer
.
From Ireland ,
summer charter flights
to the Costa Brava are easy
to pick up from either
Dublin or Belfast, and there
is a year-round nonstop scheduled
service from Dublin to
Barcelona. However, other
package holidays or city
breaks are often routed via
London, with an add-on fare
from Ireland for the
connection. Students, and
anyone under the age of 31,
should contact Usit, which
generally has the best
discount deals on tickets.
Flights from the USA and
Canada
There is a fair variety of
flights
from most parts of the US to
Madrid, with connections on
to Barcelona. Occasionally,
however - and especially if
you're coming from Canada -
your best bet may be to
route via another major
European city. Flying times
to Barcelona (excluding lay-overs)
is around eight hours from
New York, nine hours from
Toronto. If Barcelona and
Spain are part of a longer
European trip, you'll also
want to check out details of
the
Eurail pass,
which must be purchased in
advance of your arrival and
can get you by train from
anywhere in Europe to
Barcelona.
Nonstop flights
from the BUS to
Barcelona are offered by
Delta out of New York in
high season and year round
by Iberia also from JFK
(approx. $1000 in high
season). Air Europa operates
direct flights from
JFK to Barcelona via Madrid
(with a short stop in Madrid
but no change of plane).
Iberia flies nonstop from
New York, Miami and Chicago
to Madrid, where you have to
change planes to catch a
connection to Barcelona. The
US carriers Delta (from JFK),
Continental (from Newark)
and American (from Miami)
also offer nonstop flights
to Madrid, with onward
connections to Barcelona on
a European carrier - usually
Iberia or Spanair.
The lowest midweek Apex fare
on Delta's high-season
nonstop flights to Barcelona
is $930. On other routings,
you should be able to find
return Apex fares from New
York to Barcelona for
approximately $420 in the
low season or $920 in the
high season. From Chicago
expect to pay in the region
of $640/$950, from Miami
$700/$1000, from LA
$1000/$1350. However, one of
the airlines' special
promotional offers is likely
to be better value than any
of the above, and you may
even find that the cheapest
fare comes with fewer
restrictions when it comes
to advance booking or
duration of stay. At the
time of writing, for
instance, taking advantage
of promotional offers from
major airlines, you could
pick up return fares to
Barcelona for as little as
$298 from New York, $320
from Chicago, $398 from
Miami or $529 from LA. From Canada
, Iberia operates three
nonstop flights a week to
Madrid from Montréal, with
connecting flights to
Barcelona. Expect Apex fares
on indirect flights via
Europe to cost around
CAN$1250 (high season) or
CAN$950 (low season) from
Toronto or Montréal to
Barcelona. From Vancouver
the fares hover around
CAN$1800 or CAN$1300
depending on the season.
Also, from the West Coast,
you could look into the
economics of crossing the
border and flying from
Seattle to Barcelona (on
Continental, for instance,
via Newark and Madrid).
From everywhere in North
America you might also find
it worthwhile asking about routings
via other major European
cities : Northwest/KLM
via Amsterdam ,
Lufthansa via Frankfurt
, TAP or TWA via Lisbon
, British Airways via London
or Sabena via Brussels
, for example.
Flights from Australia and
New Zealand
There are no direct flights
to Spain from Australia or
New Zealand. However, a
number of airlines do fly to
Barcelona with a stopover
elsewhere in Europe or Asia.
Another possibility is to
fly to Madrid, from where
you can pick up a connecting
flight or train.
The lowest standard
return fare from eastern
Australia to Barcelona is
around A$1600 in low season
and A$2400 in high season;
from New Zealand, you're
looking at NZ$2150/$2500.
By train
From London to
Barcelona
takes around 24 hours by
train on the standard
cross-Channel route, though
using the
Eurostar
service through the Channel
tunnel (which runs from
London to Paris in 3hr) can
shave up to six hours off
this. However, using
Eurostar to kickstart your
rail trip to Spain is
expensive - you will almost
certainly be able to fly all
the way there for less.
Most regular train
departures are from Victoria
or Charing Cross stations,
daily at between 9 and 11am,
changing trains in Paris in
the early evening (you have
to change stations in Paris,
too - from Nord to
Austerlitz; take metro line
5, direction Place d'Italie).
From there, there are two
routes to Barcelona, and on
either you'll be changing
trains again at the
French/Spanish border early
the next morning.
By bus
Buses from London to
Barcelona travel via
Figueres and Girona, and
arrive 26 hours later (most
buses continue to Valencia
and Alicante). They are
operated by Eurolines ( ) in
Britain, and by Iberbus/Linebus
and Julia in Spain.
Departures
are daily at 11am or 9.30am
on Wednesdays. In both
Britain and Spain tickets
are available from many
travel agents; Eurolines
sells tickets and
through-transport to London
at all British National
Express bus terminals. The
standard one-way fare from
London to Barcelona is £69;
return £106.
The journey is long but
quite bearable - just make
sure you take along enough
to eat, drink and read, and
a small amount of French and
Spanish currency for coffee
stops. There are stops for
around twenty minutes every
four to five hours, and the
routine is also broken by
the cross-Channel ferry
(included in the cost).
By car, ferry and
Eurotunnel
The bus follows the most
direct road route from
London to Barcelona: if you
plan to
drive it
yourself, unless you're into
nonstop rally motoring,
you'll need roughly to
double the time. See the
list of ferry company and
Eurotunnel telephone
information numbers below,
or contact your local travel
agent for the latest ticket
and departure details.
EUROTUNNEL
Customer Services
Centre tel 0870/535
3535, .
FERRY COMPANIES
Brittany Ferries
tel 0870/901 2400, . To
Santander, St-Malo, Roscoff,
Cherbourg and Caen.
P&O European
Ferries tel 0870/242
4999, . Portsmouth to
Cherbourg, Le Havre and
Bilbao.
Sea France tel
0870/571 1711, . Dover to
Calais.
